History

The hand axe, made by chipping flint to form a wedge, in the hands of a human transforms force
and movement of the tool into a transverse splitting forces and movement of the workpiece. The
hand axe is the first example of a wedge, the oldest of the six classic simple machines, from
which most machines are based. The second oldest simple machine was the inclined
plane (ramp),[6] which has been used since prehistoric times to move heavy objects.[7][8]

The other four simple machines were invented in the ancient Near East.[9] The wheel, along with
the wheel and axle mechanism, was invented in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) during the 5th
millennium BC.[10] The lever mechanism first appeared around 5,000 years ago in the Near East,
where it was used in a simple balance scale,[11] and to move large objects in ancient Egyptian
technology.[12] The lever was also used in the shadoof water-lifting device, the
first crane machine, which appeared in Mesopotamia circa 3000 BC,[11] and then in ancient
Egyptian technology circa 2000 BC.[13] The earliest evidence of pulleys date back to
Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium BC,[14] and ancient Egypt during the Twelfth
Dynasty (1991-1802 BC).[15] The screw, the last of the simple machines to be invented,[16] first
appeared in Mesopotamia during the Neo-Assyrian period (911-609) BC.[17] The Egyptian
pyramids were built using three of the six simple machines, the inclined plane, the wedge, and
the lever, to create structures like the Great Pyramid of Giza.[18]